When you live four blocks from the grocery store, you get questions like that a lot.  So, here I am, visiting Costco again.

The latest issue of The Costco Connection magazine features Better Together, which talks about strategic alliances and stretching business opportunities.  It includes mentions of providing more value to customers by forming alliances, the power of synergies, and joint marketing.  Pitfalls of: expecting the impossible, of not sharing information (low trust), and unbalanced agreements also see the spotlight.

The core messages of the article are applicable to 'most all business relationships, and especially to supply chain relationships.  The fact that Costco thinks they are important enough to take up a page in their general interest publication for members is remarkable.

If they get it, why don't the rest of us?  Or, if we do, what are we doing about building smart and sustainable business relationships with mutual benefits up and down the supply chain?

While you ponder those questions, I've got to go back to pick up the cashews I forgot on the first trip.